Family Ties
by Pyreite
Summary: [Feudal Era AU] Sesshoumaru drops in at Kaede's village for a surprise visit after three long years. He encounters Kagome, tempers flare, and his past haunts him with terrible finality. Kagome is remarried, a new mother, and her son bears a resemblance to the Lord of the Western Lands. Written for Dokuga October DDN: Pet Peeves. Sess x Kag/Kag x Inuyasha. ONGOING.
1. Viable Weapon

_**DDN Prompt: Dull Pencil**_

Kagome glanced between her maths-book, her assailant, and the only viable weapon she had in hand. The pencil, duller than Inuyasha's rusty Tetsusaiga, would have to do. She swallowed nervously, brandished her impromptu spear, and thrust it menacingly forward.

"I'm armed and dangerous! Don't get any funny ideas!"

Kagome scowled when her adversary's silver brows furrowed. His pointy chin lifted, his nose wrinkled, and he looked her in the eye.

"I tremble with fear", Sesshoumaru declared dryly.

He wasn't very impressed despite Kagome's best efforts to look intimidating in a pair of candyfloss-pink pyjamas and bunny-rabbit slippers.

Word Count: 97


	2. Slow and Deliberate

**_DDN Prompt 2: Slow Walkers_**

Kagome stood her ground while Sesshoumaru walked around her, slow and deliberate, in a wide circle. She scrutinised his every step, watched the slightest twitch of his fingers, least he reached for the hilt of Bakusaiga. Kagome knew that the blade would slice her to ribbons in a heartbeat if she dared to stand against him. She was a Miko, but she wasn't stupid. She imbued the pencil with a potent burst of her spiritual powers. Kagome waggled her eyebrows when the pencil sparkled as if it were aflame.

"Impressive", remarked Sesshoumaru.

"I had a good teacher", replied Kagome.

Word Count: 99


	3. Lion's Roar

_**Prompt 3: Cellphone Drivers**_

"You could use better manners", insisted Sesshoumaru.

Kagome rolled her eyes. She wasn't going to let him get the upper-hand this time around. He had melted her cellphone into a pile of plastic and sparking metal the other day just because it had spooked him. Inuyoukai apparently didn't appreciate the finer qualities of feline yowling. Perhaps choosing a lion's roar for her ringtone hadn't been such a good idea.

"So could you!" retorted Kagome. She scowled, flicked her wrist, and pointed the blunted nib of her pencil at Sesshoumaru. The lead and wood glittered inside a sleeve of purifying pink-fire.

Word Count: 100


	4. Spitfire of a Miko

_**Prompt: Chewing Noises**_

Sesshoumaru studied the spirited little spitfire of a Miko. He hadn't expected such bravado from Inuyasha's hapless human wife. She was outmatched, outclassed, and outmanoeuvred. He was a master-swordsman, a powerful inuyoukai, and had the advantage of height, reach, and terrain. Sesshoumaru was certain, that with a flick of his thumb he could draw Bakusaiga and slice her cleanly in two without spilling a single drop of blood.

"You spend way too much time thinking about how to kill people", remarked Kagome as she blew a large bubble into her wad of chewing-gum. She stared when Sesshoumaru bared his fangs.

Word Count: 100


	5. Hypersensitive Hearing

_**Prompt: Know It All's**_

Kagome saw how the Lord of the Western Lands tensed as the bubble swelled. The skin of her chewing-gum grew thinner the larger the bubble grew. Seconds passed in silence as Sesshoumaru braced himself for the onslaught of cacophonous sound. Inuyoukai ears, were apparently, quite sensitive to loud noises and violent changes in air-pressure. The bubble burst with a bang, Kagome gaped, and her chewing gum sagged from her lips like a deflated balloon.

Sesshoumaru's eyes were blood-red.

Kagome nervously sucked in her wad of chewing-gum. "Inuyoukai have hypersensitive hearing. Oops. Now I know why you destroyed my phone".

Word Count: 99


	6. Courting Death

_**Prompt: Junk Mail**_

Kagome wondered if she'd live long enough to write her own obituary. Inuyasha could mail it to her mother, who was waiting in the Modern Era with an armload of bento-boxes, rice-cakes, and punnets of dried ramen. "I guess I'm at the top of your craptastic list of annoyances that need slaughtering", grumbled Kagome. She was fairly certain that agonising Sesshoumaru was akin to courting _Death_. He tended to maim and eviscerate anything, and everyone that annoyed him.

Kagome took a deep fortifying breath, held her head high, and rolled her shoulders back. She eyed Sesshoumaru. "_Bring it on dog-breath_!"

Word Count: 100


	7. Little Bandaged Mummy

**_Prompt: toilet paper!_**

Kagome braced herself for an onslaught of youki and violence. She was poised for attack when the pitter-patter of little feet, trailing a length of toiletpaper, interrupted her confrontation with Sesshoumaru. She winced when a cherubic-faced toddler darted for the safety of her legs. Kagome groaned when the tyke peered through the gap between her knees. Her tiny silver-haired sweetheart had gotten away from Rin _again_.

"_Darling_", Kagome said with saccharine sweetness. "_Mommy has to travel five-hundred years into the future to buy that toilet-paper. You're the cutest little bandaged mummy, but it's for wiping your bottom, not for wearing_!_" _

Word Count: 100


	8. Make Things Worse

_**Prompt: Tangled cords**_

Kagome kept herself squarely between Sesshoumaru and her son. She scowled when he tried to peer around her hip to look at the boy. "No you don't!" she hissed angrily. "You've broken my front door in half, charged into my house, and woken my baby from his nappy-time! _Just get out of here before you make things worse_!"

Kagome sighed when her son sniffled. His tiny clawed fingers were tangled in her cottony pyjamas. He had his father's sensitive ears. Loud noises gave him severe earaches. Kagome parted her knees, glanced down, and saw her son's red face.

Word Count: 98


	9. Very Upset

_**Prompt: Dirty keyboard**_

The hanyou child looked up at his mother as tears streamed down his cheeks. His ears, downy like a puppy's, were flattened against his silvery crown. He was _very _upset. Kagome spread her thighs, bent at the waist, and slipped her hands under his armpits. She pulled him through her legs.

Kagome picked the pieces of toiletpaper from his hair, chest, and shoulders to reveal the sodden folds of his sleeping-robe. Her son was dirty and in need of a bath. "Nightmares again?" asked Kagome. Her son nodded miserably. The anger waned in the face of her responsibilities.

Word Count: 98


	10. Handful of Seasons

_**Prompt: Wobbly tables**_

Kagome ignored Sesshoumaru's frowning face. He was still red-eyed, still very angry, but he was also genuinely confused too. He hadn't visited Rin in three years. The handful of seasons hadn't concerned him until now. Sesshoumaru was finally seeing the fruit of his loins.

The hanyou toddler, barely two years old, couldn't be Inuyasha's son. The child's cheeks, adorned with a pair of magenta stripes, proved his parentage. Kagome glared at her former beau. Their relationship was wobblier than a table with a broken leg. She loved and hated him in equal measure.

Word Count: 94


	11. Web of his Life

_**Prompt: Walking into spiderwebs**_

Sesshoumaru's head shook back and forth in disbelief. He had shared a brief and intense union with the Shikon Miko after the dissolution of her marriage. Inuyasha hadn't taken news of the affair well, but Sesshoumaru had learned, over the intervening months, that they had reconciled. He had meant to simply visit, to witness for himself, if Rin and Kagome alike, had fared well in his absence. Sesshoumaru had never expected his seed to sprout, swell, and grow inside the fertile womb of the most powerful priestess in Japan.

The web of his life had become infinitely more complicated.

Word Count: 99


	12. Pick up the Pieces

_**Prompt: People who double park**_

Sesshoumaru tried to follow Kagome as she walked away. He was as confused as the toddler she held in her arms. The boy, golden-eyed and silver-haired, kept looking at the strange youkai trailing behind his mother. Sesshoumaru paused when the boy addressed him with a voice silk-smooth and velvet-soft. The child wasn't too young to recognize his adopted father's double.

"You look like Daddy".

Kagome kissed her son's temple. She glanced over her shoulder at a thunderstruck Sesshoumaru. "I begged you not to leave. You _still_ left. Inuyasha picked up the pieces of my broken heart".

Word Count: 96


	13. Happily Reconciled

_**Prompt: Unmade bed**_

Sesshoumaru was wild-eyed, panting, and shaking his head in denial. The Wolf-Prince, Kouga, had kept a vigilant watch over Kaede's village. His ally hadn't shared any news of Kagome's pregnancy or her impending motherhood. Kouga had told him of the Miko's decision to remarry Inuyasha. The pair, as far as Sesshoumaru had known, were happily reconciled.

"I hoped that you would return", explained Kagome. She smiled sadly. "But you're too much the wandering soul. You come and go as you please. Before I knew it, I was nine-months pregnant, ready to give birth, and still sleeping in our unmade bed".

Word Count: 100


	14. Between Mother and Son

_**Prompt: Tapping**_

Kagome's son had plucked her blunted pencil from her fingers. He impatiently tapped the glowing pink wood on her forearm. "Mama! Need bath _now_! Stinky is bad!" Kagome nuzzled her son's cheek. He peered sulkily over her shoulder, wrinkled his nose, and pouted unhappily.

Sesshoumaru glanced between mother and son. The child, _his child,_ had inherited his peculiar love of cleanliness too. The Lord of the Western Lands, no longer heirless, gripped Kagome's shoulder. He held tightly when she tried to pull away. She was intent on tending to their son's needs.

"Is he mine?" Sesshoumaru asked tentatively.

Word Count: 98


	15. Estranged Lover

_**Prompt: Dog poop on the sidewalk**_

Kagome's posture revealed her anxiety. Her spine was rigid, her shoulders a hard line, and her head was held high on a stiff neck. Sesshoumaru could smell the bitter tang of her bristling spiritual powers. She was close to purifying him into a pile of ash. Past relationships aside, Sesshoumaru was dealing with a protective mother, not a mere Miko.

"My baby _knows _who is Daddy is, Sesshoumaru", replied Kagome. She glared at her estranged lover. "Now release me, or by the Kami, you will know what it feels like to be purified into a pile of ashy dog-poop".

Word Count: 99


	16. More Willful

_**Continued using Prompts from 'Phae's Word Prompts' on Dokuga.**_

**Prompt: Arrogant**

Sesshoumaru, arrogant by nature, had expected an immediate answer to his question. He was unused to being disobeyed, especially by those he considered to be under his protection. Rin had always been biddable, being content in her childhood to follow his lead, and to obey his every command. Kagome was more _wilful_. She constantly exercised his patience.

Sesshoumaru studied the tiny hanyou child's cherubic face. He saw shades of himself reflected in the boy's pointed chin, chubby cheeks, and shrewd golden eyes. The toddler blinked, wrinkled his nose, and tilted his head to one side like a curious puppy.

Word Count: 99


	17. Cast A Spell

**_Continued using prompts from 'Phae's Word Prompts'_**

**Prompt: Dismissed**

Kagome grimaced when her son's silver bangs parted. She tensed when a callused hand reached over her shoulder. She watched with a heavy heart as Sesshoumaru's fingers skimmed through her son's thick fringe. The gentle swipe of a clawed thumb over her baby's brow revealed the silver-blue outline of the crescent moon adorning his forehead. Guilt lodged in Kagome's throat like a stone when her tiny son, more curious than afraid, reached back.

Little clawed fingers, the miniature of Sesshoumaru's own, strained to reach for the older youkai. Kagome couldn't dismiss the spell the father had cast on the son.

Word Count: 100


	18. White Knight

_**Continued using 'Phae's Word Prompts'**_

**Prompt: Knight**

Kagome watched as her little _White Knight_ struggled to stretch his short arms, strained to spread his chubby fingers, and grasp hold of Sesshoumaru. The sight of her son trying to touch the inuyoukai that had spawned him broke something inside of her. Kagome whirled to the side, tucked the toddler tight against her chest, and tore away from Sesshoumaru. She was startled by the expression of pain and confusion on her former lover's face. He looked lost, bewildered, and hopelessly torn between desire and fear.

"Kagome", pleaded Sesshoumaru.

The Shikon Miko shook her head as her son's tears welled.

Word Count: 100


	19. The Same Desperation

_**Continued using 'Phae's Word Prompts'**_

**Prompt: Poise**

Kagome enclosed herself and her progeny in a glittering pink barrier. Sesshoumaru's taloned fingers curled into his palm. He understood Kagome's instinctiveness. She would kill to safeguard the child in her arms. Inuyoukai poised for attack, showed the same desperation when defending their young.

Sesshoumaru considered mother and child. His fingers trembled when the boy, teary eyed and miserable, opened his mouth. The distraught wail ignited Sesshoumaru's paternal instincts. He flew across the room, raised his fist, and pounded on Kagome's spiritual barrier. Red bled into his irises, sparks flew as his skin blistered, and still he struck blow after blow.

Word Count: 101


	20. Devoted Mother

_**Continued using 'Phae's Word Prompts'**_

**Prompt: Tender**

"_He bears the markings of my lineage_!" roared Sesshoumaru. He raised his fist again and again. Kagome's barrier, erected out of sheer stubbornness, bore the brunt of his anger. The lack of remorse upon her face fuelled the bonfire of Sesshoumaru's rage. He bared his fangs, snarled the truth, and glared at her through the shimmering veil of her spiritual barrier.

"_He is my son_!"

Kagome defiantly looked Sesshoumaru in the eye. She did not refute his claim. She turned to their son, smiled tenderly, and wiped his tears away. The Shikon Miko was a devoted mother.

Word Count: 97


	21. Nonsensical Words

_**Phae's Word Prompts -**_

**Prompt: Beautiful**

Kagome returned Sesshoumaru's red-eyed gaze through the shimmering spiritual barrier. She stroked their son's silvery crown when his pointed canine ears flattened. The child whimpered, wept, and buried his face in the curve of her throat. He trembled with each blow that Sesshoumaru struck. The resonant bang of the inuyoukai's fist was akin to the thunderous clanging of a gigantic bell.

"This beautiful little boy is _my_ son", declared Kagome. She kissed the toddler's crown, murmured a stream of nonsensical words, and comforted him as best she could. "His lineage means nothing if he isn't loved, Sesshoumaru".

Word Count: 97


	22. Blistered and Blackened

**_Phae's Word Prompts -_ **

**Prompt: Betrayal**

Sesshoumaru raked his claws down the side of Kagome's spiritual barrier. The scores ignited ten lines of crackling pink flames. The Shikon Miko saw Sesshoumaru's blistered and blackened hands. She gazed into his face, witnessed his suffering, rage, and confusion. The centre of her heart, ever compassionate, swelled with regret.

Kagome was torn. The shell of her spiritual barrier flickered in and out like a dying flame. She was indecisive for the first time in three years. The rush of concern for Sesshoumaru felt like bitter betrayal. Kagome was a wife and mother, and no more the naïve young woman.

Word count: 100


	23. Grown Bolder

_**Phae's Word Prompts - **_

**Prompt: Star**

Sesshoumaru sank onto the bare floorboards. The room was quaint, small, and mundane. The bamboo walls, tatami-mat's spread over the floor, and the sparse but comfortable furniture made an intimate family setting. The scents of Kagome's life permeated the air. Sesshoumaru inhaled several ragged breaths.

He looked upon the Shikon Miko encased in a glittering shield of her spiritual power. She glowed like a star, radiant, proud, and formidable. Sesshoumaru realised his folly too late. Kagome had blossomed in his absence. She had grown bolder, stronger, and all the more beautiful.

"You were always stubborn", lamented Sesshoumaru. "But never cruel".

Words: 100


	24. A Child Unseen

_**Phae's Word Prompts - **_

**Prompt: Unseen**

Kagome's eyes glittered like shards of unfeeling ice. She maintained her dignity despite their son's unhappy mewling. The boy wept as she rubbed soothing circles up and down his spine. She had changed over the years. She had become hard, fierce, and protective.

"Motherhood changed me", replied Kagome. She felt little remorse for the youkai that had dared to frighten her son. "Three years ago I had a child, unseen, growing inside my womb. I gave birth to him, held him once, and I have loved him ever since. The greatest cruelty, Sesshoumaru, is that he reminds me of you".

Word count: 100


	25. Into Adulthood

_**Phae's Word Prompts - **_

**Prompt: Voyage**

Kagome threaded her fingers through her son's slick silver hair. She stroked his crown until he calmed. She wanted Sesshoumaru to witness the culmination of her voyage into adulthood. He had known her as a heartbroken teenager, given her a shoulder to cry on, and shared her bed in the dead of night. The toddler in her arms was the inevitable conclusion of their union.

Kagome's spiritual barrier remained intact as she turned away. Sesshoumaru was powerless to stop her as she walked into an adjoining room. The bamboo door slid open, Kagome stepped inside, and he was finally alone.

Word count: 100


	26. The Inutaisho's Legacy

_**Phae's Word Prompts -**_

**Prompt: Ambition**

Sesshoumaru had never wanted to emulate his father in word and deed. The Inutaisho was still considered, even in death, to be the epitome of youkai power and prestige. The scandal of fathering a hanyou child had enhanced the legend and not diminished its grandeur. Sesshoumaru wondered if his own ambition to become both powerful and respected had inadvertently led him down the same path. He now shared the Inutaisho's legacy.

Sesshoumaru, the Lord of the Western Lands, had fathered a halfblooded hanyou child. Inuyasha's mother, Izayoi, had been human. The mother of his child was _human_ and a_ Miko_.

Word Count: 100


	27. Precious Rin

**_Phae's Word Prompts -_ **

**Prompt: Suspect**

Sesshoumaru tensed when the bamboo door that Kagome had retreated through slid open. He suspected that his son's tyrannical mother had returned to purify him into ash. Sesshoumaru was surprised to see a contrite adolescent human slip inside the room. Her hair was black as obsidian, her eyes an earthy brown, and she still favoured the colour orange. Precious Rin, now eleven years old, gathered her robes in her hands.

The swish of sunset fabric, adorned with bright chrysanthemums, brought little Rin respectfully to her knees. Sesshoumaru sighed when slender arms wrapped round his neck.

"My poor, Sesshoumaru-sama", whispered Rin.

Word Count: 100


	28. As A Daughter

_**Phae's Word Prompts - **_

**Prompt: Sadness**

Three long years had not diminished Rin's love for the Lord of the Western Lands. She embraced him as a daughter would her father. The gentlest pat on the back, the comforting stroke of small hands on silver hair, and Sesshoumaru embraced his adopted child. She was forgiving, even now, after he had left her in Kaede's care. He was relieved that someone in the old Miko's village still loved him.

"Rin is so sorry, Sesshoumaru-sama", whispered the ward of the Western Lord. "Today should be a happy day, but how can today be happy, if Sesshoumaru-sama is so sad?"

Word Count: 100


	29. Resurrected Twice

_**Phae's Word Prompts - **_

**Prompt: Glass**

Humans were fragile as glass in comparison to youkai. The slightest cut, scratch, or injury could cause devastating illness and chronic infirmity. Rin had died, been resurrected twice, and hadn't suffered physical or spiritual injury despite being in the thrall of _Death_. She had emerged from the underworld, twice fold, whole, renewed, and unspoiled. Rin's resilience was humbling.

Sesshoumaru tucked her crown beneath his chin. This lively little girl, ever bright and happy, had changed his life for the better. He now understood what his father had experienced with Izayoi. Humans loved with the whole of their hearts.

Word Count: 98


	30. More Alike Than Different

_**Phae's Word Prompts - **_

**Prompt: Fret**

Rin held her tongue. She was inquisitive, full of questions, and loved to chatter, but she also understood that sometimes silence was better than unnecessary noise. Poor Sesshoumaru-sama's world had been rocked off its axis. He knew not where the sun rose and the moon set in the sky. Rin understood how confusion, sadness, and anger could disorient even the most disciplined adult.

She remembered the hysteria when Kagome-sama had gone into labour. Inuyasha-sama had fretted like a worried mother-hen. Rin knew from experience, that Sesshoumaru-sama was fretful too. Inuyasha-sama and her adopted father were more alike than different.

Word Count: 99


	31. Fruition

_**Phae's Word Prompts**_

**Prompt: Import**

Children were of great importance to both humans and youkai. Sesshoumaru had simply never thought himself capable of siring a child akin to his half-brother upon the most unlikely mother of all. Kagome was human, but also a Miko, and should have been unable to bear a youkai's seed to fruition. Her tiny son, barely two years old, with his sunshine yellow eyes, and pointed canine ears, was living evidence of overcoming nature. Positive and negative energies collided, cancelling one another, as had always been the _status quo_ for youki and the pure holy aura of Monks and Miko alike.

Word Count: 100


	32. Hardly Peaceful

_**Phae's Word Prompts - **_

**Prompt: Recluse**

Sesshoumaru was a recluse by nature, preferring the freedom of solitude, to the convoluted intrigues of the vast youkai court. He was a creature of habit. It was better to be surrounded by the familiar and trustworthy than to be mired in the unrelenting games of youkai politics. He regretted retreating back into the restless and ever-shifting pool of allegiances that his father had once called a '_Kingdom_'. The West, after the demise of Naraku, had hardly been peaceful in the past three years.

The shock and anger waned in the wake of Sesshoumaru's disastrous reunion with Kagome.

Cruel realisation dawned.

Word Count: 101


	33. Clarity

_**Phae's Word Prompts - **_

**Prompt: Spank**

"I should not have left her", admitted Sesshoumaru. He hugged Rin tight as the red faded from his irises. The magenta stripes upon his cheeks thinned. He miserably asked Rin for clarity. "What can this Sesshoumaru do to earn her pardon?"

He was scandalised when Rin, in her infinite child-like wisdom, suggested the most obvious route for success.

"Sesshoumaru-sama could say that he is sorry, beg for forgiveness, and let Kagome-sama spank him".

Sesshoumaru was relieved that Rin, snuggled in his arms, could not see him blush. His ward had spent far too much time around that perverted Monk, Miroku.

Word Count: 100


	34. Infantile Giggling

_**Kyn's Weekly Word Prompt Challenge - **_

**Prompt: Scent**

Sesshoumaru smelt the scent of soap and warm water. His curiosity stirred at the sound of splashing, infantile giggling, and Kagome's gentle reproving tones. She was up to her elbows in soapy water as she patiently bathed their playful little son. Sesshoumaru felt a sudden innate urge to join the territorial Miko as she attended to their child. The briefest introduction to his Heir had awakened a plethora of confusing fatherly instincts.

Sesshoumaru did not understand this sudden desire to be around a boy he barely knew. Youkai had strong familial ties, but that rarely extended to accidental hanyou offspring.

Word Count: 100


	35. Like A Curse

_**Kyn's Weekly Word Prompts Challenge - **_

**Prompt: Glow**

Sesshoumaru tensed when Kagome's front-door, cleaved in half, creaked as a visitor entered the house. He clutched Rin protectively to his chest, instincts running wild, and turned his head to regard the new arrival. Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed when he spotted the matured adult version of his son pad inside. The hanyou was barefoot, cloaked from chin to toe in red fire-rat fur, and scowling balefully.

Sesshoumaru growled his name like a curse.

"_Inuyasha_".

The hanyou's golden eyes glowed like twin lanterns. He bared his fangs threateningly, spied Rin in his half-brother's arms, and curbed the urge to spit an insult.

Word Count: 100


End file.
